Product Description

In his first critical work since the highly successful THE ART OF FICTION (0140174923), David Lodge writes principally about Grahame Greene, Kingsley Amis and James Joyce,and from there goes on to tackle two questions: the value of creative writing,and the task of dramatizing literary works for tv and the stage. He is uniquely qualified as a novelist, critic and academic to write this book, and approaches his subject with a fine wit and accessible style.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #415629 in Books
• Published on: 1997-11-27
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 352 pages

Review
Whether you are looking for instruction or entertainment, this eagerly awaited new collection from the author of The Art of Fiction has something for every reader or writer. With refreshing candour, Lodge turns his incisive critical attention to his own profession, assessing the achievements of the writers who have influenced his own work, scrutinizing the motives of biographers, pondering the merits of courses in creative writing - revealing the secrets of his own workshop in the process - and pulling the rug from under certain fashionable critical theories. (Kirkus UK)

Having retired from theory-dominated academia in 1987, British novelist and critic Lodge (Therapy, 1995, etc.) reflects on the practice and practicalities of writing for a living in this engaging essay collection. Lodge has written ten novels, five works of criticism (The Novelist at the Crossroads, not reviewed, etc.), a play (The Writing Game), and a considerable body of essays and reviews. The book's first section includes pieces on some broad issues in writing ("Fact and Fiction in the Novel") and deft, precise readings of modern writers, including essays on D.H. Lawrence, Henry Green, and Vladimir Nabokov, among others. Lodge delivers an excellent introduction to Kingsley Amis's novel Lucky Jim, vigorously demonstrating why the book deserves to be remembered and reread. And as a Catholic, he sympathetically and informatively reviews discordant biographies of Graham Greene. There's a pleasant frankness and freshness about these pieces, as if Lodge, freed from the constraints of the university, can speak freely in a less formal voice. The pieces in the book's second section focus on Lodge's adventures in other media, including his work on a screenplay adaptation of Charles Dickens's Martin Chuzzlewit, and another based on his own novel Nice Work (1989). When laboring over Dickens, Lodge actually finds himself trading traditional places with his director, as he argues for a dramatic reworking of the story over any lengthy fidelity to the text. He also includes excerpts from his diary having to do with the production of The Writing Game; they display Lodge's easygoing adaptability and persistent fascination with the theater, despite difficulties with casting, rehearsals, and reviews. Lodge sums up this theatrical departure from his campus novels as "the most intensely interesting experience of my literary career to date." Neither wholly journalism nor academic theorizing, The Practice of Writing offers the best of both worlds. (Kirkus Reviews)

About the Author
David Lodge was for many years Professor of English at Birmingham University,where he still lives. As well his works of critical and literary theory, he has also published many bestselling novels, most recently THERAPY (0140253580). He writes frequently for tv, including an adaptation of MARTIN CHUZZLEWIT.